Bin Laden film leak was referred to Justice; leaker top Obama official (Vickers)

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Pentagon investigators concluded that a senior defense official mentioned as a possible candidate to be the next CIA director leaked restricted information to the makers of the acclaimed film on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and referred the case to the Justice Department, according to knowledgeable U.S. officials.

The Justice Department was sent the case involving Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers in September, but it so far has declined to launch a criminal prosecution, said two senior U.S. officials who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The case involved a determination by investigators of the Pentagonís inspector generalís office that Vickers provided to the makers of the film, Zero Dark Thirty, the restricted name of a U.S. Special Operations Command officer who helped plan the May 2, 2011, raid on bin Ladenís hideout in Pakistan, one official said. The identities of special forces personnel can be classified in certain circumstances and making them public is against the law, according to experts.

Vickers, a former Army special forces operator and one-time CIA paramilitary officer, is the top intelligence adviser to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and oversees the Pentagonís vast intelligence operations. He has been frequently mentioned as a candidate to replace retired Army Gen. David Petraeus as CIA director.

A top-level Pentagon review of defense strategy calls for bolstering the U.S. military with thousands more elite troops skilled in fighting terrorists and insurgents and partnering with foreign forces -- as part of a decades-long plan to expand efforts to thwart terrorists worldwide, according to U.S. officials and military analysts familiar with the review.

The increase would bring the ranks of Special Operations Forces -- which include covert Delta Force operatives, Rangers, Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces -- to their highest levels since the Vietnam War while adding billions to the budget of the 52,000-strong U.S. Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, over the next five years, said the officials and analysts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the final document has not been released. . . .

"This will be the largest increase in the number of SOF since the Vietnam War," said Michael Vickers, director of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, who has been involved in the QDR and was a member of a team of experts probing U.S. weaknesses.

7. Excellent point!

9. Interesting. Vickers appointed USD-I on March 16, 2011. What did that coincide with?

Think about it . . . that's when we first see the emergence of armed opposition, massacres, and semi-covert US involvement in Libya and Syria. It's within days of the arrival in Benghazi of late Ambassador Chris Stevens and a group of "aides" who popped up aboard a Greek freighter in Libya to coordinate the US role in leading the opposition.

Vickers' name has been floating around Washington for weeks. Now, it looks like he's been shot down after the White House signaled a new approach to the region with the withdrawal of Susan Rice as presumptive Secretary of State. Mike Vickers is, of course, best known as the CIA mastermind of the arming of the Mujahaddin with heavy weapons, including Stinger anti-air missiles, in Afghanistan. Many of these weapons were covertly supplied through Egypt and a global network of black market arms dealers, which are the same sources now feeding the Syrian opposition, again with Saudi and Gulf Arab funding and cooperation.

Most recently, the Senate grounded plans to vastly expand the role of USD-I and DIA HUMINT in roles previously taken by CIA and State counter-proliferation such as the massively failed assignment to locate many of the 20,000 or so MANPADs looted by militias in Libya. Some of these have now appeared and are being used by Libyan Jihadis and others in the Syria regime change. Does anyone else see a continuity in method and purpose here?

One also has to ask: does this tie together with the resignation of Petraeus and the forced departure of several top Generals involved with formulating strategy and running special operations in MENA and South Asia?